Moving to Paraguay from the United Kingdom

Step 1

The documents a British citizen assembles

Paraguay's Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) expects a specific, modest set of documents. As a British citizen you gather these at home, before you fly:

• A UK passport valid well beyond your planned travel — check the expiry date now, not at the airport.
• Your UK birth certificate — a certified copy from the General Register Office or your local register office. Order a fresh certified copy; an old, worn original can cause problems.
• An ACRO Police Certificate — the criminal record certificate issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office for use overseas. This is the police record Paraguay expects from British citizens, and it must be a current original — certificates have a limited shelf life.
• Your marriage certificate, if you are married and applying as a couple.
• Every one of these documents must then be apostilled — see Step 2 — and later translated into Spanish by a sworn translator in Paraguay.

Step 2

Apostilles — a single UK office, done right

The United Kingdom belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention, so Paraguay accepts a UK apostille and you skip consular legalization entirely. The UK makes this simpler than most countries: there is one authority for the whole country.

• All UK public documents — your ACRO Police Certificate, birth certificate and marriage certificate — are apostilled by the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
• The FCDO accepts these documents directly: an ACRO certificate, a GRO birth certificate and a marriage certificate carry the wet-ink signature of an official, so no solicitor or notary step is needed before the apostille.
• Send originals, not photocopies — the FCDO Legalisation Office will not apostille a plain copy. Check current FCDO processing times and choose standard or a faster service to suit your timeline.
• Sworn translation into Spanish happens after apostille, by a traductor público matriculado registered with Paraguay's courts. It is done in Paraguay, and getting it right the first time matters.

Be honest with yourself

Your UK tax does not end at the airport — the SRT does

This is the section most relocation marketing quietly skips. The good news for British citizens: unlike the United States, the UK taxes on residence, not citizenship — so once you genuinely cease to be UK tax resident, your liability to UK tax on worldwide income ends, and the UK has no general departure or exit tax on emigration. The catch is that your residence status is not a choice; it is decided mechanically by the Statutory Residence Test (SRT), and you have to fall on the right side of it. The SRT runs in order — automatic overseas tests, then automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test — and the number of days you may spend in the UK depends on your ties and your recent residence history. If you have been UK resident in any of the previous three tax years, the day count to be automatically non-resident is low. If you leave partway through a tax year, split-year treatment may divide the year. And the temporary non-residence rules matter: if you are non-resident for five years or less and were resident for at least four of the prior seven years, certain gains you realise while away can be taxed when you return. The honest summary: Paraguay can genuinely lower your cost of living and give you a stable second residency, and a clean break from UK tax residency is achievable — but only if the SRT is satisfied properly and your days are managed. Speak to a UK cross-border accountant before any tax-driven decision.

Getting there

Flights, timeline, and your first weeks

A realistic picture of the move itself:

• There are no direct flights from the UK to Asunción. The most common one-stop routing is via Madrid with Air Europa; other connections run through other European or South American hubs such as São Paulo or Buenos Aires — budget a full travel day each way.
• Document preparation — ordering certificates, the FCDO apostille, courier time — typically runs a few weeks to a couple of months from the UK, paced by FCDO processing times. Confirm current turnaround before you commit to dates.
• You do not need a visa to enter Paraguay as a British tourist. You begin the residency process in person, after you arrive, at the DNM.
• Visa-free entry is for tourism, not work, and it is not residency — it is simply how you enter to start the process.

FAQ

Moving to Paraguay from the UK — FAQ